19 Days

Sometimes life has a way of taking over - so it's been quite awhile since my last post.  And my posts have been infrequent at best for the last year or so.  For a variety of reasons.  But I am pleased to report that I submitted my resignation a couple of weeks ago with the plan to retire at the end of June.  As of today - 19 more work days for me!  Not that my blog posting will pick up - but I will try.  There may be a few changes - for example, I have committed to set up a separate Divas blog, so the Divas related activity will be documented there - but that will have to wait until at least July.  There will be a link on this blog so it will be easy to find.

Now on to my recent projects....

Part of my "life" involved a major surgery - so prior to the surgery date, I cut out another Patch Pals penguin.  The Patch Pal patterns are so easy to sew - just squares - I thought I'd be able to sit for a few minutes at a time and put some of them together while I was recovering.  This is the second penguin I've made - first was sold at Galleria, this second one will go to a young friend who is expecting her first baby.  I called this one "Me and My Parental Unit" - something my kids have called me from time to time and it's generic so could be Mom or Dad.

Here she is - Aliza with her quilt.

 

I was able to get the penguin done so then I needed a "next" project.  I wanted to make something for a friend who likes cats.  I remembered a pattern I had seen a few years ago with cats (in the book  Cat’s Meow: Purr-fect Quilts for Cat Lovers by Janet Kime).  I had a fat quarter pack that was purr-fect!  :)  I called this one "Cool Cats".

 

I downsized my purse/wallet before I had the surgery.  I always have carried my business cards in a special pocket in the wallet I was using, but the smaller wallet does not have such a spot.  I needed a business card carrier!  So  did an online search and found a number of interesting ideas for making one.  I will eventually try several of the ones I liked best - but started off with this one.  They are very fast to make and are just dandy for holding my quilting business cards!  Since I'm "retiring" I won't need a "business like" holder for my "real work" cards any more!  You can't imagine how happy that makes me!!!  Anyway - this is what I've been up to the last few moments that I've had a bit of time to sew. 

 

As you can see - I made more than just one for me - I'm going to take them to work tomorrow and give them to my female friends there.  The website location for the tutorial is here.  The only change I made was based on one of the comments following the tutorial where one person said she had found the 1/2 inch seam allowances made the holder too small - so I used 1/4 seams, which worked out just fine.  Perhaps it was just a typo because everything else was right on.

I've also got a couple of customer quilts on the go - if you want to see those, head over to my business No Rules Quilting website here.

And finally - my DH, Joe, has been doing some serious bird watching this spring and testing out his new camera - he's taken some pretty awesome shots and has started his own blog, which you can check out here if you're interested in birds that we see in and around Calgary.